


Never let you fall.

by seektheinfinite



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Angst, Brotherly Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-20
Updated: 2015-06-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 07:51:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4171824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seektheinfinite/pseuds/seektheinfinite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After receiving a distraught phone call from Anders telling him that he's killed someone, Mike is in a race against time to pull his younger brother back from the edge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never let you fall.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a bit late to the party but this is my first attempt at writing for the Almighty Johnsons. I have just discovered and devoured the show thanks to Netflix. I hope you enjoy my work as the plot bunnies are multiplying, and I have several more ideas in the pipeline. I just love this show and it's characters.

From the moment Olaf had declared that Anders had taken on the living embodiment of the God of Poetry, Mike had been on his case. Constantly reminding him that using his powers would have consequences. That he wasn’t to use it for frivolous things. That he had to be careful.

Just because Rob had ended up in a coma because Mike had been gambling with the wrong people, didn’t mean that anything bad was going to happen to him. He knew how to handle himself. Besides, if anything bad happened he could always just Bragi his way out of the situation.

How Mike had delighted when he’d arrived home one night, not long after receiving his powers, with a black eye and a couple of bruised ribs; the consequences of using his powers that Mike had been warning about.

From then on he always made sure to be more careful, make sure the woman he was chatting up was in fact single and not engaged to the biggest guy in the bar. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t get himself into trouble, that happened on a regular basis, he just made sure that it never turned physical.

That was until today. Today had been, without a doubt, the worst day of his life and he had no idea what to do about it. Well that wasn’t strictly true, he knew that he needed help, he needed his big brother Mike, but just the thought of telling him about the day’s events was enough to make him feel sick to his stomach.

How could he possibly tell Mike that a woman was dead and that he had killed her?

&&&&&

He wasn’t sure how he made it home in one piece, he couldn’t even remember getting into his car, let alone the drive home. He needed a drink and he needed it now. Staggering through the door to his apartment he made straight for the fridge where he kept his liberal supply of vodka.

Taking a generous swig straight from the bottle, the burn catching the back of his throat, he found his feet giving way beneath him as he slid to the floor, back leaning against the kitchen counter.

The reality of the events of the last hour finally hit him like a tidal wave, taking his breath away. He couldn’t do this, not on his own. As much as he wanted to avoid making the call he knew that he needed help.

With shaking fingers he drew his mobile from his jacket pocket, hitting one on the speed dial. The wait for Mike on the other end seemed like an eternity. One ring, two, three. The longer it rang, the worse it got, he could barely hold the phone up to his ear anymore for the shaking of his arm.

“Hi, you’ve reached Mike Johnson, I’m busy right now but if you want to leave a message I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

 _Damn it Mike_ , Anders silently cursed his brother. Then again, he couldn’t really say that he was surprised. Mike had probably seen Anders name flash up on the Caller ID screen and deliberately ignored it.

“Mike…. I really messed up this time. Please Mike, if you’re there I really need you to pick up right now.” Anders took another shaky breath in an attempt to calm his racing heart and stave off the black spots that were making their way across his eyes. “Mike, please! I don’t know what to do, I really need you." After waiting for what seemed like an eternity Anders admitted defeat. “Fine, okay well I guess you’re not going to pick up, so I’m on my own as usual. “

The phone was out of his hand flying across the room before he even knew what he was doing. He heard rather than saw it hit the wall across the room. No doubt it would now be lying on the floor in a million pieces, but somehow he just couldn’t bring himself to care.

Nothing mattered anymore, because a woman had died tonight and it was all his fault. He couldn’t get the image of her body, lying on the ground in front of him, limbs bent at impossible angles, blood pouring from the wound in the skull. It was the eyes, her eyes, that he knew would haunt him for a good many nights to come. He could have sworn that he literally saw her soul leave her body the moment that the life finally left her, leaving nothing but blue eyes once so full of life and laughter, now empty, all signs of the life once held within them extinguished.

&&&

“Oh come on Anders, seriously. You leave me a message like that, and then can’t be bothered to answer when I call you back. Moaning at me for not picking up my phone, did it even occur to you that I might be busy? I do have a life outside of picking up after my little brothers you know. Okay seriously, I’m going to give you five minutes, if you don’t pick up I’m coming round and I swear this better be damn important.”

“Problem?” Olaf leaned, one arm propped up on the bar, head resting within it; his free hand wrapped around a now empty glass.

Mike sighed. He was used to this, Anders was always getting himself into some kind of trouble, and honestly Mike had lost count of the number of times that he had ended up bailing him out. It was usually over either money or woman, Anders' two main weaknesses.

“Nothing major, just Anders. He called me a while ago, left me a message saying he was in trouble and needed my help. Now he’s not answering his bloody phone, which is just typical of him. Selfish to the last. Asks for help and when you try and give it, he just doesn’t want to know.”

Mike slammed the vodka bottle he was holding down on the counter with such force that Olaf was afraid that it might shatter. Godly strength was not one of Mike’s gifts, that was Axl’s domain, but Mike made a living using his strength.

“Has it occurred to you that he isn’t answering because he can’t answer?” Olaf ventured, calmly. Judging by Mike’s lack of response, he was pretty sure that eventuality had not crossed his mind. That was an unfortunate trait that all of his grandchildren had picked up; they would always assume the worst of Anders' before even considering any other possibilities.

“Shit. I’m going over to his apartment. Can you mind the bar?” Mike was grabbing his keys and was half way to the door before Olaf could answer.

“Only if there’s free drinks for the workers?”

Mike stopped, and gave him a despairing look. “In this bar there’s always free drinks. I have to take Ullr out for a spin every once in a while just to keep from going under.”

&&&

Climbing out of the lift on the fifteenth floor, Mike was immediately struck by the feeling that something was wrong. He was standing in front of Anders' apartment, but something was telling him that Anders' was not here. Ullr had lead him here though, to Anders' apartment block, so he had to be here. He just wasn’t in his apartment.

Mike took a deep breath. It always helped to focus his tracking instinct if he stopped for a second and let the universe guide him.

“Shit.”

There was no time to wait for the lift to arrive now, Mike was frantic. Anders wasn’t in his apartment because every instinct in Mike’s body was screaming to him that he was on the roof. What the hell was he doing on the bloody roof? He’d already had to talk one brother down from the edge, literally and he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to do it for a second time.

His mind was racing with all manner of possibilities as to why Anders had taken to the roof of his 20 storey apartment block, none of them good. At least he could take some comfort in knowing, as he edged ever closer, feet pounding on the metal stairway, that Anders was still alive and that he was still on the roof. Ullr was good for something.

Pushing open the metal door that lead out onto the roof of the apartments, Mike frantically searched for his errant brother. What he saw made his heart leap into his throat.

Even as he’d been running, he’d hoped beyond hope that Anders was fine, that this wasn’t happening, but the sight in front of him was worse than he could ever have imagined.

Anders was sat, feet dangling off the edge of the roof, hands planted firmly behind him. He was leaning backwards, which was something, but his eyes were closed as though he were thinking, contemplating his next move. The thing that disturbed Mike the most was the fact that Anders was covered in blood. His once white shirt was now stained crimson, his hands and face both baring bloody marks of some, as yet, unknown horror.

He stood there for what felt like an eternity pondering his next move. Did he call Anders’ name and hope that he didn’t startle him enough to topple him over the edge? Did he get closer, perhaps trying to grab him before he could make his next move? Whatever way he looked at it, he could mess up and Anders could die. There was nothing else for it, he would have to do something; he couldn’t just stand here all day and stare at his younger brother dangling on the edge.

“Anders?” Mike waited for a reply that never came. Taking a few steps closer he tried again, this time calling his name a little louder. “Anders?”

It was slow, but at least he was responding this time. Anders opened his eyes, looking back towards Mike. He didn’t say anything for a good few seconds, and Mike steeled himself, ready to pounce should he need to.

Mike hated the look that Anders was giving him, he looked lost, confused, hurt. All things that he hadn’t seen in his younger brother for a long time, not like this, not since their parents had left them.

“Mike?” The word was barely audible above the noise of the street below and the wind that blew around them.

“Hey Anders. How about you come on down from here. We’ll go back to your apartment and we can talk about whatever’s happened. Okay?”

Anders looked more confused than ever now. He didn’t move to stand up, just sat staring at Mike like he’d grown two heads. “Come down…” Taking his eyes off Mike, Anders turned back to face the city, eyes growing wide as he realised just where he was. Mike watched as recognition dawned on Anders' face as he looked out over the skyline, hands taking a death grip on the ledge behind him. “Mike!? What are we doing out here, why am I? I was in my apartment, I don’t remember…”

Mike was moving towards Anders even before he’d finished talking. It was clear now that this was not Anders contemplating suicide, but rather an unconscious act of someone in shock. What the hell had happened to him?

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m here. Just swing your legs back over and we can go back down to your apartment and you can tell me what the hell happened.”

At the mention of talking about what happened, Anders seemed to snap out of his funk, if only temporarily. “Shit, she’s dead. I killed her, Mike. There was so much blood and I couldn’t do anything. Fuck.”

Mike wanted to scream and shout at his brother. What the fuck did he mean, that he’d killed her? Killed who? However, his immediate concern was that Anders was clearly in distress, and as much as he had made it clear that he didn’t intend to be here, dangling his legs over the edge of a 20 storey building, he still was. Worse was the fact that he had now let go of the ledge, seemingly forgetting the precarious position that he was in. Instead, wrapping his arms tightly around himself.

There was nothing for it; if Anders wasn’t capable of moving himself from the ledge back to his apartment, Mike would just have to do it for him.

“Okay listen. We can talk about this inside, but right now we need to get you back downstairs and away from this ledge.” Mike grabbed hold of both Anders' arms and pulled him backwards onto the roof. Anders landed with a thump on the hard concrete floor with little reaction to the inevitable pain it must have caused him. When no move was made to get up from the floor, Mike reached out a hand to his younger brother.

After a few seconds, Anders finally took the hand that was offered to him and stood shakily, both feet thankfully firmly on the ground. Mike made a motion indicating that Anders should go first. He knew he hadn’t meant to be out here but there was no point in tempting fate any more than he had too. Anders didn’t move. He just stood, staring blankly at some invisible image that only he could see.

She was there again. Everywhere he looked, she was there. Lying there, blood oozing out of her, red dress mingling with the blood. He couldn’t even make out where blood ended and the dress began. It was her eyes that he just couldn’t shake, the look of accusation in them before they’d been extinguished forever. She knew that this was his fault, and she was telling him so in the only way that she now could.

“Anders!” He found himself involuntarily wincing at the sound of Mike’s voice, harsh in his ear. When he glanced back down to the spot where her body lay, she was gone. He knew that she wasn’t real, that she hadn’t died on this rooftop, but it was like all rational thought had left him.

&&&

Mike glanced warily over the couch where he had deposited Anders five minutes ago. They had made it down the stairs, barely, with Mike having to do much of the work as it seemed though Anders' legs had forgotten their purpose.

He had ducked into Anders' bedroom in an attempt to find some other clothes for him to wear. Seeing his brother sitting there covered in blood stained clothes was enough to make his own blood run cold. When he returned to the living room, Anders had made no attempt to move, he was just sat with vacant eyes staring at the wall. Placing the clothes down next to him, Mike started to undo the buttons on his shirt.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Anders voice exploded into the silence, taking Mike aback. “I’m not a fucking invalid, I can dress myself you know.”

Mike removed his hands from Anders shirt, placing them up in a gesture of surrender.  Without saying a word, he moved to the kitchen leaving Anders to sort himself out.

The problem was that Anders was no longer moving, instead he was now staring at his still bloodstained hands. Leaving the idea of fixing them both a drink, Mike moved back to the couch, touching Anders lightly on the shoulder, not wanting to startle him. He waited for Anders to make the first move.

“There’s so much blood. Too much.”

“Here let me help, okay.” Before waiting for an answer Mike was gently moving Anders hands out of the way, once again reaching for his shirt buttons. “Why don’t you start by telling me whose blood this is, because it’s clearly not yours?”

“Jennifer or was it Jamey or Janice. Fuck, I can’t even remember. It began with a J. I met her in a club last night."

Mike sighed inwardly. He had warned Anders so many times about the dangers of using his powers, they always came with consequences. Jesus, Anders knew that, he’d been here before, not like this, never like this, but there had been other women. Other messes that Mike had been involved in cleaning up.

“What happened, Anders?” Mike wasn’t sure he wanted to know, not after what he’d said on the roof, that he’d killed her. But if he was going to be of any use to his younger brother he had to know the full story.

"Well, I was at a club and I met this woman. She kept staring at from across the bar and she had the most gorgeous blue eyes. There was something about her that was irresistible.”

Mike wanted to point out that there was something in practically every woman that Anders had ever met that he found irresistible, but thought better of it.

“So I went and said hi, we got talking and things moved on pretty quickly from there. She took me back to her place, and shit Mike she was good.

We must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know I’m being dragged out of bed by this meathead. All muscle, no brain, you know the type. Anyway, she tried to stop him, grabbed his arm and he smacked her, right around the head. She hit her head, hard against the wall.

Before I knew what was happening he was on top of her and he had a knife. Oh god Mike, he was stabbing her, over and over again and there was nothing I could do. The one time that I need my fucking powers and I freeze, I just couldn’t speak. I fucking stood there and watched the life and it drained from her eyes as he stabbed her again and again.

I just left her there Mike, I fucking ran like a little girl and left her there. I had the power to stop him, I could have, I should have stopped him and I did nothing. What’s the use of being a God if you can’t stop something like that? It’s all my fault, she’s dead because of me.”

The silence between them seemed to stretch on for an eternity as Anders eyes welled up with unshed tears, no longer looking at his brother anymore, his attention once again back to the floor.

Mike didn’t know what to say, what could you say to that? He knew one thing for sure though; his heart felt just a little lighter knowing that despite when Anders had said on the roof, and despite what he himself believed, he was no murderer.

“Anders, look at me.” Mike tried his best to use his commanding older brother voice, but when Anders made no move to shift his gaze, Mike grabbed his chin and lifted it so that their eyes were once again level.

“Listen to me, this is not your fault.” He placed a hand up in warning to stop the flow of words that were about to tumble from Anders' now open mouth. “You didn’t kill anyone, you have to know that, deep down. This awful thing happened, and it’s going to take you time to get over it, but you did not kill that woman. You didn’t smash her across the room. You didn’t plunge the knife into her chest over and over again. The same thing would have happened whether you’d been there or not, you can’t blame yourself for this.”

Anders was quick to respond, taking no time to process his older brother’s words. “She was defending me. He only attacked her because I was there with her, if I hadn’t gone home from the bar with her…”

“She would have gone with someone else. You didn’t use your Bragi powers on her, she came onto you. She invited you back to her place. She knew exactly what she was doing and she’d probably done it before.

Now I know two things for sure, you need to get yourself cleaned up and out of these blood soaked clothes and then you and I need to take a trip down to the police station to report this.”

Mike saw panic flood into Anders' eyes at the mention of the police. “What if they ask why I didn’t do anything? What if they want to know why it’s taken me so long to report it?"

“Then we’ll tell them that you were in shock, you still are. Don’t worry. I’ll be there the whole time, and I’ll make sure they go easy on you, bro.”

Mike was somewhat taken aback as his younger brother leaned towards him, arms extended and pulled him in for a hug. They hadn’t done this since Anders was a kid, and Mike hated the fact that it had taken something like this to bring them together.

“Mike?”

“Hmmm?”

“Thanks.”


End file.
